News Reports on Indonesia’s Post-election 2024 from Selected National and International Newspaper: A Pragmatic Analysis

The Indonesia’s presidential election 2024, as one of the largest democratic nations, gained wide attention from both national and international media. This research carries out a pragmatic analysis of news report on the post-presidential election of Indonesia 2024 from selected national and international newspapers using Austin (1962) and Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory. 30 utterances were purposively taken from three newspapers ( The Jakarta Post , The Guardian , and The New York Times ). By implementing qualitative research method, this research analysis discussed three aspects of Speech Acts: locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary. The result of the analysis showed that there was obvious finding on the reporting style of newspapers on the election outcome. Based on the analysis, assertive statements were dominantly found as it is in line with the nature of newspaper style; present factual information impartially, aiding in neutral and concise reporting. Directive statements wielded fi gures’ influence and attitudes toward ongoing issues. Commissive speech acts conveyed promises, pledges, and accusations persuasively, while declarative ones declared figures’ initiatives and actions on issues. Expressive speech acts reflected collective societal feelings, particularly regarding election outcomes.


INTRODUCTION
In the dynamic landscape of Indonesian politics, elections stand as pivotal moments that not only shape the trajectory of nations.They also serve as a prism through which societies are reflected and understood.Elections are the lifeblood of democracy, encapsulating the aspirations and voices of the people (Aspinall, 2005).The Indonesian Election of 2024, a crucial period in the nation's democratic journey, gained attention not only on the national stage but also echoed across the international community.The attention arises as the controversies circulating among candidates narrated through both national and international newspapers.Each candidate embodies distinct and evolving political personas, however, political affiliations, past political events, allegation of human right violations, politization of religion, constitutional court scandal, and other issues become hot topic for newspaper to publish and also become societies' concern (Llewellyn, 2023;Harsono, 2023;News Desk, 2023;DFF, 2024;& Yilmaz et al. 2024).The primary roles of mass media involve communicating information to the public, and this information should possess qualities such as accuracy, interest, correctness, comprehensiveness, balance, relevance, and utility.Consequently, any information disseminated through mass media should be compelling to support a good governance and the watchdog of democracy (James, 2005;Tunca, 2009;& Ekaningsih, 2020).
Many newspapers published strong and striking headlines before and amidst the election.On Feb 13, 2024, one day before election, The Economist made a headline "Why you should worry about Indonesia's election" followed by short description "the controversial figure is leading the polls in the world's third-largest democracy".Similarly, The Guardian published a headline saying "Indonesia election: president criticised over alleged interference on behalf of Prabowo" (Ratcliffe, 2024).Three days earlier, South China Morning Post also made a striking headline saying "Indonesia election 2024: will the country help vote a political dynasty into power?"(Wang, 2024).Meanwhile, Indonesian newspaper, The Jakarta Post, posted a headline "Indonesia votes for new president under shadow of influential incumbent" (Agencies, 2024).These headlines illustrate how newspaper narrate the issue surrounding the Indonesian president candidates linguistically.Not only as title, news headline should be strongly narrated to trigger the curiosity of the reader while at the same time providing the illustration of the information (Jubei, 2018).
Political interference in news coverage has distorted public discourse, with both political actors and media institutions exerting considerable influence over the narrative.This has led to a biased and polarized portrayal of issues, contributing to a lack of understanding of complex problems (Hänggli, 2012;McChesney & Pickard, 2017;Schudson, 2002in Zurriyati et al, 2023).Allegations suggest that the media is aligned with political interests, promoting certain narratives while suppressing others (Kellner, 2003).Through selective reporting, framing, and spin, bias can infiltrate news coverage and shape public perceptions of events.It is argued that the media reinforces hegemonic practices, limiting free speech and imposing specific values and political frameworks on the public.Hegemonic practices, characterized by dominant social forces maintaining their power over weaker groups, are perpetuated by the media's promotion of certain values and marginalization of others.Therefore, the use of language in news should also be seen as an act as they have the power to influence readers' perception (Zurriyati et al, 2023:12).This research embarks on a pragmatic exploration, exploring into the structured layers of news reports on the Indonesian Election 2024.Through a selection of national and international newspapers, this study aims to unveil the intricacies of language use, implicit meanings, and communicative strategies employed in portraying this democratic event.As we navigate the multifaceted discourse surrounding this electoral milestone, the research seeks not only to dissect the linguistic nuances within news reports but also to contribute to a deeper understanding of how global perspectives converge and diverge in the realm of political communication.This research aims to analyse news reports on Indonesia's presidential election in the aftermath of the election day from selected national and international newspapers.For the national newspaper, The Jakarta Post is taken as the sources.This national newspaper is selected as it is regarded as reputable English newspaper in the country and widely accessible with its website and Apps version.
Meanwhile, the international papers selected for this research are The Guardian, and The New York Times.The selection of these newspaper is justified as they are popular, highly respected newspaper that cover international news from all over the world, including Indonesia.Furthermore, they pay special attention to the presidential election by circulating news that offer valuable insights and broader perspective within the country.
Overall, this selection is grounded on the basis of the availability, accessibility, reputation for accuracy and impartiality in spreading news report.
Nevertheless, pragmatic analysis of newspaper report on the post-election of Indonesia's president 2024 has received minimal attention from linguistic researchers.It is also important to note that although there are some linguistic related studies on newspaper report, studies on current selected national and international news report on Indonesia's presidential election 2024 are largely missing.Therefore, the current research addresses this evident gap in academic literature by conducting a detailed analysis of reports on post-presidential election 2024 in Indonesia, exploring their impact on a global scale from the perspective of pragmatic study by answering this research question: how are speech acts realized in selected news reports on Indonesia's presidential post-election?This is achieved through an examination of news articles from both national source (The Jakarta Post) and international publications (including The Guardian, and The New York Times).
This research aims to carry out a pragmatic analysis of news report on Indonesia's post-election 2024 by looking at the selected national and international newspapers.Specifically, the research plans to identify the features of speech act from selected newspaper reports on Indonesia's post-election 2024.Further, it also aims to analyse the features of speech act and their connection with the existing context around the reports.

RESEARCH METHOD
This research employs a qualitative research approach known as the descriptive method to examine the various speech acts found in newspaper reports.
Qualitative research focuses on the whole picture rather than breaking it down into factors to better understand a phenomenon (Pardede, 2019;& Creswell, 2014).
Because the data for this study includes words or utterances, descriptive qualitative research are used to assess the data.This method facilitates the description of the features of speech act in newspapers, identifying, classifying, and analysing them using the concept of speech act theory proposed by Austin (1962) and revised by Searle (1969).For the purpose of this research, three news articles on Indonesia's presidential election published after the election are selected as the data sources.
The first article is taken from The Jakarta Post newspaper, and the headline 'Jokowi effect' looms large over the Prabowo election victory that was published on Feb 16, 2024.The second article is taken from The Guardian newspaper with the headline 'Winter is coming': activists' fears as Prabowo Subianto likely wins Indonesia election, that was published on Feb 15, 2024.The third article is taken from The New York Times newspaper with the headline Which Version of an Ex-General Did Indonesia Just Vote For? published on Feb 15, 2024.From these three articles, 30 utterances (10 from each newspaper) were selected and categorized according to Searle's (1969) illocutionary acts, including assertive/representatives, commissive, expressive, directive, and declarative.After the illocutionary acts are found, they are further analysed based on their expected perlocutionary force by looking at the linguistics evidence from each utterance.

Data collection
News articles from The Jakarta Post, The Guardian, and The New York Times are extracted from the internet through their official website respectively for the purpose of analysis.The data was purposefully sampled from a selection of national and international newspapers.The researcher chooses and categorizes a sample size of 30 sentences, with 10 sentences extracted from each newspaper.This method is deemed optimal for the study as it allowed the researcher to select news reports containing the features of speech act relevant to Indonesia's presidential election.Utilizing purposive sampling facilitates the selection of data representing diverse perspectives and viewpoints, essential for studying the multifaceted issue of politics.Essentially, the chosen speech acts are based on their potential to enrich our understanding of how national and international news media depict Indonesia's presidential election, and how this portrayal may have influenced the public's perception.
It is crucial to note that selecting ten sentences from each newspaper serves multiple purposes in this study.Firstly, it enables the researcher to concentrate on a manageable volume of data while ensuring a comprehensive representation of each newspaper's content.Secondly, it facilitates comparison and contrast of language usage across diverse sources, offering valuable insights into the reporting styles of different newspapers regarding the Indonesia's presidential election 2024.
Thirdly, the decision regarding the number of sentences allows a focused analysis on the most significant and representative instances of speech acts discussed, thereby contributing to a more precise and thorough comprehension of overall language use.

Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework for this research is the theory of speech act initially formulated by Austin (1962) and further developed by Searle (1969).Austin's three-level division of speech acts into locution, illocution, and perlocution has been highly regarded in linguistics studies, serving as a foundation for distinguishing between semantics and pragmatics.According to Yule (1996) and Grundy (2000), while semantics focuses on the conventional meanings of words, pragmatics delves into the intended meanings based on the context of use.Speech act theory examines how utterances perform different actions in discourse, with Austin and Searle classifying speech acts into assertive, directives, commissive, declaratives, and expressive.
Austin's interest in the performative aspect of language emerged as a response to the limitations of truth-conditional semantics in accounting for non-descriptive utterances that perform actions.He categorized speech acts into the act of locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary, with the illocutionary act being the core focus.Searle (1969) further refined Austin's classification (1962), emphasizing that speech act theory pertains to linguistic competence rather than performance.
1. Assertive: these illocutionary acts involve speakers committing to the truth of the expressed proposition.Examples include stating, claiming, and reporting.
2. Directives: these statements compel or prompt another person to take a particular action, request, command, or advice.They are often used to give orders, leading the hearer to act accordingly.Prabowo skilfully reinvented himself from feared Army general to "cuddly grandpa".
Prabowo has vowed to continue Jokowi's developmentalist agenda and legacy project in his election campaign.
Nevertheless, Jokowi also courted controversy when he allowed his brother-in-law at the Constitutional Court to pave the way for his 36-year-old son to run for vice president.
Jokowi also mobilized massive populist programs like social aid and cash transfer for low-income households Directive (commanding)

Encouraging and mobilizing
Table 1 above presents the data taken from The Jakarta Post newspaper.There 10 speech acts taken in the news article.All five types of illocutionary types are found.Among these four types, assertive illocutionary acts are found to be dominant with 4 utterances, followed by commissive illocutionary acts with 3 utterances, declarative illocutionary acts with 2 utterances, and expressive illocutionary acts with 1 utterance.The presumed election victory of Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto -a former army general with a history of alleged involvement in torture and disappearances -marks a dark chapter in the country's history, activists have warned, while vowing not to give up their fight for justice.
On Wednesday night he told supports that his win would be a "victory for all Indonesians".

Directive (advising)
Inquiring and persuading the people
however, that accountability for past atrocities will fade even further under Prabowo, and that his future government will have little regard for human rights.Muhammad Isnur, head of the Legal Aid Institute Foundation of Indonesia (YLBHI), said the election of Prabowo may be "too painful" for the families of those who disappeared in 1998, who are still fighting for justice.
Academics, journalists and civil society groups should prepare for the worst, Muhammad said."We need to be aware of every risk that could happen to us in the future and try to make a list of mitigations.We need to be prepared."

Commissive (warning)
Enlightening the people with potential risk 10.Prabowo added that there was a need to wait for an official result from election authorities.

Directive (commanding)
Encouraging and persuading the people Table 2 above presents the data taken from The Guardian newspaper.There 10 speech acts found in the news article.Only four types of illocutionary types are found.Among these four types, commissive illocutionary acts are found to be dominant with 4 utterances, followed by assertive illocutionary acts with 2 utterances, directive and expressive illocutionary acts with 2 utterances respectively.Prabowo Subianto has been called all of these over the years he has sought power in Indonesia.Now he is projected to be the country's next president.
During the campaign, Mr. Prabowo repeatedly promised that he would continue on the path and policies charted by Joko Widodo, the popular departing president.

3.
Indonesia's future is pivotal for the world.With a population of roughly 270 million, it is the world's fourth-most populous country and has a big role to play in both geopolitics and climate change."Jokowi clearly dreams that Prabowo will allow him to be a back-seat driver, which I don't believe will be the case," Ms. Dewi said, using the president's nickname.
"The 2024 election is a red mark that will be remembered by the public," said Media Wahyudi Askar, director of public policy at the Center of Economics and Law Studies.He has also said he would build 3 million homes for the needy and increase teachers' salaries.
"With Prabowo, we don't trust him, so he will be given much less room to maneuver" by the public, said Dewi Fortuna Anwar

Expressive (Suspicion) Scepticism
Table 3 above presents the data taken from The New York Times newspaper.Similarly, there 10 speech acts taken from the news article.However, only three types of illocutionary types are found.Among these three types, assertive, expressive, and commissive illocutionary acts are found to be equally dominant with 3 utterances each, and followed by declarative illocutionary acts with 1 utterance.

Assertive
As one of the illocutionary forces, assertive is devised to utter/assert the being of matter, a situation, report an event, etc (Austin, 1962;Searle, 1969).This act can be examined as either correct or incorrect.Common actions verbs that are used to indicate these acts are describe, report, inform, assert, and etc (Obasi, 2023: 12).Elaborated below are the examples of analysis of this illocutionary act: The data above is the assertion on the unofficial result of Indonesia's presidential election according to quick count.The information contained in the utterance is taken from reliable sources (votes were counted at sampling of polling station nationwide).Therefore, the illocution derived from the utterance, emphasized on the verb "received" and "won", is the action "reporting" the circulating information.In the aspect of perlocution (the intended effect of the utterance), the writer presents the information to signal the highly potential winner of the Indonesia's presidential election 2024.Additional information on the percentage winning on provincial levels is also used to support this reporting.
Data 2: Table 2. No. 6 Prabowo, a former son-in-law of Suharto, was a long-time commander in the Kopassus special forces, but was discharged from the military after Kopassus soldiers kidnapped and tortured political activists in 1998 (The Guardian Newspaper, Feb 15, 2024).
From international perspective, assertive statement is also taken as the sample of analysis.The statement above was also a "report" of credential information of circulating around Prabowo Subianto.The illocution could be observed through the words "former son-in-law", "commander", "discharged", kidnapped", and "tortured", where the writer tried to portray him as a candidate with controversial backgrounds.Therefore, this statement is intended to ensure that the readers are exposed to the credential information about him, and hopefully that they take this seriously.
Data 3: Table 3. No. 6 "The 2024 election is a red mark that will be remembered by the public," said Media Wahyudi Askar, director of public policy at the Center of Economics and Law Studies (The New York Times Newspaper, Feb 15, 2024).
The second assertive statement from international perspective is taken from The New York Times newspaper (Feb 15, 2024).In the news article, the writer quoted the director In national and international newspapers, not many directives illocutionary acts are found.In The Jakarta Post newspaper, there is one statement taken where the President of Indonesia, Jokowi, is reported to have mobilized massive social aids and cash transfers which many assumed to have influenced the situation before the election.According to Searle (1969), directive speech acts refer to those utterance that make others do something.In this case, the word "mobilized" indicates Jokowi's command to his subordinates to do such actions or execute the social-aid programs massively as he has the power the direct the course of something.The perlocutionary acts found are encouraging and mobilizing Data 5: Table 2. No. 2 On Wednesday night he told supports that his win would be a "victory for all Indonesians".(The Guardian Newspaper, Feb 15, 2024).
From an international perspective, directive speech acts tend to highlight Prabowo Subianto's attitude over the result of the election.The statement above is directive because using the word "told" Prabowo transfers a request and advises his supporters to accept the victory as a "victory for all Indonesians".It also implies that he wants to persuade all other Indonesians who are not his supporters to take this winning as one.Therefore, the perlocutionary effect is meant to persuade and inquire all Indonesians (his supporters and other candidates' supporters) to celebrate this victory and not be separated regardless of political affiliation.It is also intended to reassure all Indonesians that no clash happens following the election as it happened in the previous election.
Data 6: Table 2. No. 10 Prabowo added that there was a need to wait for an official result from election authorities.(The Guardian Newspaper, Feb 15, 2024).
At the point where this news article was released on Feb 15, 2024, the official result of Indonesia's presidential election 2024 had not been announced yet.However, many credible agencies released the quick count on people votes on the day of the election (Feb 14).The statement above is directive because Prabowo expresses the need "to wait" for the for the official announcement on March 20, 2024.Therefore, in the aspect of perlocutionary acts (the intended effect of the utterance), the speaker wants to encourage and persuade the people to patiently wait the official result for KPU despite the accuracy of quick count survey as proven in several election in the past.
In the selected national and international newspapers, many directive statements, using commanding verbs, are used to show how the figures express command the people under his/her influence.This can provide an overview of the power he/she has and his/her attitude over the ongoing issue.

Commissive
Commissive illocutionary act serves to show how the speaker commits to future actions, or to do something (Austin, 1962;Searle, 1969).This act is indicated by the presence of verbs that illustrate the acts of promising, threatening, intending, vowing, refraining from performing such act (Obasi, 2023: 23).The findings in this research are elaborated below: Data 7: Table 1.No. 8 Prabowo has vowed to continue Jokowi's developmentalist agenda and legacy project in his election campaign.(The Jakarta Post, Feb 16, 2024).
The above speech act is taken from The Jakarta Post report (Feb 16, 2024).The utterance is considered a commissive speech act because it displays how someone is committed to action he will take in the future.Using the word "has vowed", the writer wants to show that Prabowo is the successor of Indonesia's current president, Joko Widodo as he wants to continue Jokowi's developmentalist agenda, especially the building of Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN).This word is also a strong word in indication commissive speech act as Searle (1969) mentioned that this act is indicated by the presence of verbs that illustrate the acts of promising, threatening, intending, vowing, refraining from performing such act (in Obasi, 2023: 23).
Data 8: Table 2. No. 9 Academics, journalists and civil society groups should prepare for the worst, Muhammad said."We need to be aware of every risk that could happen to us in the future and try to make a list of mitigations.We need to be prepared."(The Guardian Newspaper, Feb 15, 2024).
From international newspaper, commissive speech act indicates the warning from reputable academic and journalist on what could happen in the future.The illocution that can be drawn from the utterance above is warning to make everyone be committed to have well preparation to face what future might hold.Using the words "need to" for three times, and "could happen", the writer displays the commitment of the speaker in promoting the states of affair.Other types are also found in the articles: directive, commissive, declarative, and expressive.
Based on the topic of the news, all these speech acts are used to describe the political situation in Indonesia after the presidential election.It mainly highlights Prabowo Subianto as the candidate, Jokowi's position, and future possibilities in Indonesia.Though the wordings are different, the overall meaning among selected newspapers are quite similar and these speech act might have the similar impact on how readers react toward the news.Moreover, understanding speech acts is not just about understanding the meaning of words, it is more about understanding what are being communicated, thought they are not said.Therefore, understanding the current political context and situation in Indonesia would help to understand the intended meaning.
In the selected national and international newspapers, many directive statements are used to display the manifestation of the figures' power in commanding the people under his/her influence and also to show his/her attitude over the ongoing issue.Meanwhile, many assertive statements present facts, story, or other circulating information without drawing conclusions.This helps newspapers to make a neutral, concise, and objective news reports (Obasi, 2023).
In the other hand, commissive speech acts are often utilized to convey promises, pledges, and accusations, therefore they are strategically powerful for convincing readers.Declarative speech acts are used to declare figures' initiatives and also their act upon the ongoing issues.The last, expressive speech acts are used to convey people's psychological condition as a collective member of the society.It is mainly about their feeling over the election result.However, due to the number of data collected/analysed, and the scope of study further pragmatics study needs to be carried on to provide more in-depth conclusion.
3. Commissive: commissive illocutionary acts commit speakers to future actions, such as promising, offering, or swearing to do something.4. Declaratives: declarative statements are used to assert or declare something, making it so.Examples include pronouncing someone guilty, resigning, dismissing, accepting, or declaring war. 5. Expressive: expressive illocutionary acts convey the speaker's psychological state or emotions, such as thinking, apologizing, congratulating, or expressing gratitude.The Speech Act Theory provides a framework for analysing the deeper meaning and functions of utterances in various situations of speech act.Researchers can gain insights into communication dynamics in different contexts by examining how language is utilized to administer different actions and gain various effects.In the context of the presidential election in Indonesia, analysing speech acts can shed light on how the media portrays the election, influences public opinion and behaviour, and shows governmental and organizational position.The adoption of the theory of speech act by Austin (1962) & Searle (1969) in this study is thus justified by its relevance in analysing the data and uncovering underlying communicative functions in newspaper reports.Recently, many studies have been conducted on various texts.Sestiana (2013) analysed The Jakarta Post readers' forum usingBach & Harnish's (1979)  speech acts classification by analyzing newspaper articles.It's found about the negative presentation that was established using three speech act categories: constatives, acknowledgments, and directives.Meanwhile, Priyanto (2019) analysed the translated items in Pikiran Rakyat Newspaper usingSearle's concepts (1965; 1981).The research concluded that direct and indirect speech hold a crucial role in the news, especially in meaning construction.In the aspect of translation, speech acts realization is strongly influenced by the ideology of the media; whether there is an addition or omission.Similarly, Wiana & Kahirani (2020) conducted similar research on Waspada newspaper headlines in Medan.By applying Searle's framework (1965), it's found that representative function (36.4%).This finding is due to the characteristic of newspaper that convey information based on facts.In Permana & Mauriyat (2021),Searle's framework (1965)  was also applied to analyse SBY's speech.Through the analysis, it's found that there are nine assertive utterances, eight commissive utterances, and four directive utterances; each of them delivered with various purposes and contexts of meaning.Futhermore,Rahmawati & Setiyaningsih (2021)  also analysed political speech of Jokowi and it's found that declarative illocutionary acts are dominant (86%), while the rest are interrogative and imperative utterances.This result is in line with the character of a speech that must be informative and persuasive.The last,Obasi (2023) conducted research on news report on covid-19 and found that newspaper media used more assertive statements to mostly report, inform, and assert the current condition in their report on covid-19.

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Winter is coming, whatever the name," said Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia."But the fight must go on … all of the perpetrators have to be brought to justice."former son-in-law of Suharto, was a longtime commander in the Kopassus special forces, but was discharged from the military after Kopassus soldiers kidnapped and tortured political activists in